Protesters demonstrate for Ukraine near the site of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. / Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY

by Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY

by Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY

DAVOS, Switzerland - Ukraine's protests came to Davos on Friday - via Sweden and elsewhere - for about 26 hours.

"There were a couple of activists that started this idea on Facebook to bring attention to what is happening in my country and to do it during the World Economic Forum," said Oleg Shimanskky, 28, who arrived in Zurich on Friday morning on a flight from Lund, Sweden, where he studies entrepreneurship and innovation.

He drove immediately to the Swiss mountain town hosting the WEF with five other protesters he met at the bus station.

USA TODAY found Shimanskky and about four dozen others - who also learned of the impromptu protest from Facebook - draped in the Ukraine flag in a little park just off the main promenade in the center of Davos, where they chanted slogans such as "Where are you, EU?"

"The ticket was outrageous, but it doesn't matter," he said.

Shimanskky, who is originally from Kiev, has a return ticket to Sweden for Saturday morning.

"What is going on in the Ukraine is not all about the European Union any more. The first thing that needs to happen is that we need to stop the violence. The president is not even negotiating. One of the things we are saying here at Davos is that these people are violating the laws of the Ukraine in terms of the violence, but they are also laundering money in Europe and the U.S.," he said, referring to allegations of corruption.

The protests in Ukraine began in late November in response to President Viktor Yanukovych's decision to abandon an economic agreement with the European Union in favor of receiving a bailout from Russia. In the months since, violence has gripped parts of the country with clashes between protesters and police. The Associated Press reported that at least two demonstrators were killed this week in clashes with police, and protesters have seized government offices in cities in western Ukraine, where support for Yanukovych is thin.

"I don't know if I should have spent the money on a flight to Kiev instead of coming to Davos," Shimanskky said, "but I also don't know if I could go home and start throwing Molotov cocktails either. I really don't like violence, but people have been standing in the cold there for a long time now."